A top ten table of crimes police in Cambridgeshire have given offenders a slap on the wrist for after they agreed to make reparations has been revealed.

Police say the conditional cautions have been handed out to drug addicts who have agreed to try and get clean, fraudsters who pay back the victim or vandals that repair the damage they caused.

The sanctions have been given for a wide variety of offences in the last year, according to force records.

Officers issued a total of 108 of the sanctions including five for domestic abuse.

The crime for which most were handed out was for assault with injury at 38 from April last year to March this year.

In second place was criminal damage to a vehicle with 23 offenders subjected to a conditional caution.

Third place was common assault with 21 and in fourth spot was vandalism at 20 offences.

Theft was in fifth place with 19 and shoplifting was sixth with 16.

In seventh spot was criminal damage to a home at 14 followed by vandalism to a property other than a home which included shops and other businesses.

Ninth place was taken by anti-social behaviour with eight offences and in tenth place was theft by an employee with five crimes recorded.

One of the cautions was given for sexual assault on a female aged over 13 and another for possession of firearms with intent.

Two were issued for attacks on police officers, two for burglary and three for bike theft.

And figures also revealed the number of simple cautions which is a formal warning issued by police to someone who has admitted a criminal offence. Intended for “low-level offending”, cautions are issued at the discretion of police and enable a sanction to be given without going before the courts.

A total of 1,975 of these cautions were given for domestic violence from 2008 to this year with the number falling from 408 down to 314.

Cautions for hate crimes have also fallen from a high of 32 in 2008/09 to 9 in the last year.

Since 2008 a total of 100 cautions have been issued for hate crimes.

A force spokesman said: “Conditional cautions are cautions with conditions attached. They are often used for low level first-time offences, or where a person has not offended for a significant period of time. They are mainly used for either rehabilitation or recompense purposes.

“For example, an offender with a drug habit may have a condition to attend a course, a fraudster may be asked to pay the victim compensation or a vandal may be told to repair damage. Failure to comply within 12 to 16 weeks can result in a summons to court.”

Tough new rules have been brought in over cautions for serious offences.

Police Minister Damian Green has previously told the News the Government is “tightening up the rules” on cautions for serious offences.

Officers have been banned from giving cautions to serial offenders after new legislation was introduced on February 5. In future, a ‘slap on the wrist’ will be banned except in exceptional circumstances.